So you have your Facbeook fan page set up, the Twitter, the Google + page, your corporate LinkedIn profile all up and running smoothly. Well guess what, that’s the easy part. Establishing and posting content to social media channels is only half the battle. The more important part is making sure your efforts are returning results. Think of it this way, what good are your efforts if no one is seeing them? As social gets more and more congested brands will are no longer getting the engagement they once did by just “being there”. Today, you have to actively make sure you’re maximizing your brand’s social media engagement. It’s what separates the successful brands from the average ones.

According to a Social Media Explorer post by Murray Newlands “posting content on Facebook and Twitter is easy. Getting customers to engage with it takes time and effort.” I’m sure that you, like me, would not mind in getting some tips and advice.

Develop a Unique Voice

Social media is a powerful tool, but it really all depends on how much your audience loves your brand – we all can agree on that. So how do you get people to really fall in love with your brand? When it comes to social media, it’s all about being able to have conversations with fans or followers. The best way to foster conversations is to humanize your brand. People know when they are and are not being marketed to, and to be successful brands have to drop the corporate lingo and instead communicate with fans like a person. Developing a unique voice will go a long way in driving engagement. Newlands illustrates this with an example. Diamond Candles, a small candle shop in North Carolina, is an excellent example of publishing social media content in a unique voice. “Their posts are varied with some asking questions like ‘Name your favorite childhood game’ and others like ‘Burn, baby burn that ring RIGHT outta there!’” By adopting this strategy, Diamond Candles is essentially telling their fans that there’s a person posting these updates that likes the candles as much as they do. This is why their page has over 100,000 likes.

Build out your Facebook Page

Another good idea is to really try to maximize your Facebook page. Try adding some additional tabs to your company’s Facebook page as they are a great way to showcase additional content so customers end up spending more time on your page. You can add tabs that connect fans to an online shop, offer an email sign up for news, videos, or a promotion you have running (like a sweepstakes). Newlands points out that by building out your Facebook page “can keep fans busy on the page and keep them without having to go to partner sites for information.”

A Little Incentive Never Hurts

A good way to help introduce new customers to products is through coupons and giveaways. Coupons and giveaways are great ways to help customers learn about new products. Diamond Candles offers weekly giveaways for one of their candles where they ask for fans to tweet with a specific quote. Newlands aptly points out that “It takes time to build up this loyalty but the more customers know your product, the more loyal they will be.” Another example is the San Francisco bakery, Cako. Cako keeps customers coming back by offering promos and letting fans know through Facebook. They publish status updates that read “Like us on Facebook and get a free cupcake!” to help attract new fans or to keep fans up to date on promos with posts like “Father’s day is tomorrow! If you just said ‘Oh, crap!’ don’t worry Cako is offering a special, buy 5 get the 6th free!” Notice the impersonal voice Cako uses with their updates, helping to establish a more human connection with their fans.

Staying up on the Pulse

Lastly, but certainly not least is of being aware of what’s being said about your brand. It’s always important to know how your company is being perceived in the social realm. Having a positive or negative review could by the difference in making or losing a sale. It’s important to try and go through each post to see what people are talking about. What topics do they find interesting or what problems routinely come up? While it is a substantial amount of work, it’s very important. It will help you develop future content that your audience will find interesting.

There you have it. Some great tips to help you generate the social media engagement you’ve been striving for.

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